Elden Ring, released in 2022, is not exactly a title many, myself included, would think of when LCD gaming comes to mind. For those that do not know, LCD games are some of the oldest portables, and somehow, still holding on via various companies. The idea is simple, graphics are constant but only shown as needed to progress the game – there is no animation – graphical pieces turn on and off on the screen as needed. Sounds are blips and beeps making the Atari 2600 sound like a vinyl record in quality. Elden Ring is a very impressive, graphic monstrosity, game that is fairly new. Someone decided to make that an LCD game and the results are quite interesting.
Who Needs Graphics
Those that know about LCD games already know the graphics are often going to barely resemble the source material. That rule applies here.
Graphically, what is here is well thought out and works quite well to give you a bite size experience. At the end of the day that is probably as good as an LCD game can really get.
You move left and right on a platform. There is one enemy you can attack on the right side of the screen. Underneath them is their hit point counter. Underneath your platform is an enemy that you cannot attack, you can only avoid them. The first level only has one enemy under you, later levels add more – making avoiding them nearly impossible.
Frustrating Gameplay, Why We Love LCD Games
If you think “NES Hard” is hard then you have likely not played many LCD games in your gaming journey. LCD games, by their very nature, are tough, unforgiving, but also can be quite fun.
Once you defeat the enemy on the right a set of stairs will appear, pressing up a couple of times will move you to the next screen. This is where Elden Ring LCD changes things up a bit for such a limited format. Branching paths depending on which set of stairs you choose to take – left or right.
That is a mind-blowing option for LCD games, which are normally strictly linear affairs, if there is a path at all.
You can head over to itch.io and grab Elden Ring LCD for free. You might want to do that before From Software find out and maybe take legal action (I am unsure if they are more Sega or Square Enix at fan games).
This brings me back to the late 80s/ early 90s when I used to collect LCD games. I only had 5 to 10 of them but man did I play them a lot.
(Not so) fun fact: Eventhough I was born in 1981, I never had a Gameboy nor a console. I only played PC games ( at home ), until my younger brother, born in 1990, got an XBox. That brother became a ( pretty successful )indiegame developer.
That is awesome that your brother became a successful game developer. It is wild how things like LCD games can shape our childhoods. Some of these were quite decent games - I personally enjoyed the Mega Man 2 (I believe it was MM2) LCD and also, even though I suck at it now, the TMNT one by Konami among a few others.
I played the Turtles one at my cousin's place. It was good fun.
LCD Elden Ring is a flex.
Right?!? I agree.